Dictator s Daughter (28 page)

“Where is he?” Sara asked in a whisper.

“He’s in the basement prep room at the
mortician’s home.”

“Well, that would be the perfect place for
Dr. Randall to take him.” She wiped her eyes. “He would have
pronounced him dead and then ordered the ambulance to take him to
the mortician. But Sean, I don’t understand how you were able to
meet with him if you were looking after Eliwese at the cabin.”

“Well, Eliwese sent me to get Dr. Randall’s
car.” Sean realized his story didn’t start there. It started at the
point when Lyndee informed him about her crosser, Beth. So that’s
where he began his story.

He relayed how Eliwese took a bullet, what he
did to help her, the information he found out through her delirium,
her marriages, the quest for an heir, Riley and the underground,
Ryan arriving, but he left out Ryan’s blunders, his own intimacies
with Eliwese, and everything his father told him concerning his
mother.

Sean wrapped it all up with, “The DVD she
made detailed her exact reason for crossing; she plans on taking
her father down.”

“She what?” Sara asked.

“She has sensitive information he doesn’t
want spread around and he was willing to trade both of you for
Eliwese. I’d say it was pretty distressing to learn what she knew.
I’d even say that it would get him removed from power.”

“Well,” Sara said, “that would explain
something. Before we left the palace, Riley told us how the meeting
would go. He said you two would have to choose which one of us to
trade for Eliwese and that, in fact, you wouldn’t end up getting
either one of us. He said the two of you would be hunted down and
shot afterward. But things seemed to have gone differently. It must
have been her DVD which altered the outcome.”

“It put the fear of spit in his soul, that’s
what it did.” Ryan said. “He realized he could very well be brought
down by his own daughter and it scared the sh…stuffing out of
him.”

Sean continued, “Well, back to the time at
the cabin, Eliwese thought we needed a white vehicle to drive to
Northtown and I remembered Dr. Randall had one. She sent me to go
borrow it from him and that’s when I saw Dad.”

“Yeah, and Dad told Sean not to tell me he’d
survived.” Ryan rolled his eyes. “Go figure.”

“Sounds like Dad,” Lyndee said.

“Well, he also told me to take Dr. Randall
back to the cabin to evaluate Eliwese. He recommended that we take
her to his secret hospital. So we did and he fixed her up.”

Jacquline entered the room carrying many
assorted bags and gave everyone a start. The conversation ceased
and Sean was about to jump up and help her, but Ryan beat him to
it. Sean remained seated and watched as they set the bags down and
emptied the contents. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes he
wouldn’t have believed the dramatic change in Ryan’s behavior over
the last few days. Jacquline seemed to like Ryan, Sean thought, and
a smile crept over his face.
Good thing she didn’t meet him last
week.

Jacquline addressed the group. “I have food
and snacks in the kitchen. With the bedroom and the pull-out, there
are enough places for everyone to sleep tonight.”

“I’m fine with the floor,” Ryan
volunteered.

“Me too,” Sean added.

Jacquline hesitantly said, “I just need to...
I mean, I would really like to know what happened.”

The four Cutler’s looked at one another and
Sara, being the matriarch, spoke. “We operate a crosser home in
Slaterville, and for the past little while, we’ve housed Eliwese
Rawlings.”

Jacquline’s hand flew to her mouth. “The news
said…”

“Never mind what you saw on the news.” Ryan
jumped in. “The only true thing about the report was our house
burned down.”

Lyndee gasped and a shell shocked expression
covered her face. “Our house burned down?”

“You were there, Lyndee,” Ryan gently pointed
out.

“I don’t remember anything after Beth was
shot. I think they drugged me.”

Sara put her arm around Lyndee and continued.
“Eliwese escaped her country and her father, and came here. We did
not kidnap her. Victor Rawlings wants everyone to think that.”

“Alright, you house crossers, and you housed
Eliwese, where is she now? Did they find her?”

“She traded herself for our release,” Sean
said quietly.

“What happened to Lyndee?”

Sean looked at Lyndee and wondered the same
thing. “Lyndee, what happened to you?”

“Well, like I said, I don’t remember anything
after he shot Beth, until I woke up in a strange place with strange
faces around me.” She paused looking around the room at everyone.
“They questioned me and threatened me with everyone’s deaths along
with my own if I didn’t talk. Riley started beating on me, he…I
was…” Lyndee looked to her mother for help.

“You don’t need to say any more, baby.” Sara
comforted her adult daughter, knowing the rest of the story was
deplorable, and would haunt Lyndee for all of her days. The hellish
situations she had been through would forever be imprinted on
Lyndee’s mind and Sara understood this all too well.

Sara picked up the story. “I was at the house
with my husband Paul when the men came to the door. Everything
happened so fast, I wasn’t even aware Sean and Eliwese had
evacuated. Paul tried to reason with them, he tried to explain but
Riley wouldn’t hear it. Ryan tried to help us but there were too
many of them.” She smiled at Ryan and reached out and took his
hand. She continued, “Beth was shot point blank.”

Sean jumped in for Jacquline’s sake of
understanding. “Riley shot his own mother, can you believe it?”

Sara continued, “The men beat on Paul and
Ryan and then took us outside, and that’s where they shot Paul.”
Her voice cracked. Even knowing he was alive still couldn’t take
the horror out of the memory. “Lyndee and I were the ones
kidnapped. They handcuffed me to the inside of the vehicle and
proceeded to light our house on fire. As we drove away, I remember
feeling like I was being ripped from everything and everyone I
loved.” She didn’t tell them that it was déjà vu all over
again.

“I too, must have been drugged at some point,
because I don’t remember anything about crossing into Rendier. I
don’t remember going to the palace, I only remember waking up
there. It was some time before they took me to see Lyndee. She was
in worse shape than she is now, if you can imagine. I was with her
for only a short time, before we were all brought to this
hotel.”

Jacquline let out a sound of disgust, “That’s
why they requested no services, because you were in the suite. And
I was sitting in the lounge with you,” she motioned to Sean,
“telling you how kind Victor Rawlings is to the staff and such a
generous tipper, when all along, he had prisoners, no, hostages in
his room!”

Ryan moved to Jacquline and placed his hand
on hers. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up over this. You couldn’t
have known any of those details. Rawlings has worked very hard to
keep a squeaky clean image in everyone’s mind; he certainly had me
fooled. I used to get in arguments with Sean, accusing him of
blowing things out of proportion and being paranoid. I bought into
the whole ‘good guy’ image the dictator falsely portrays through
his propaganda, even though we housed defectors from his country. I
just thought the people running were wimps or cowards, but I was
sooo wrong.”

Jacquline had a sudden realization. “I
allowed Riley to view the computer records this morning. He was
looking for someone in particular and at one point he used his cell
phone and spoke quietly. Was he looking for you guys?”

“Riley doesn’t ever stop looking and locating
people for Rawlings.” Sean thought to himself that she unknowingly
exposed their location to Riley and this was how Dr. Randall was
found.

“Ryan, what happened to you after we were
taken away and how did you hurt your hand?” Sara asked him.

Ryan looked at the hand Dr. Randall had
wrapped. Then he looked at Sean and the bruise on his jaw line. “My
hand and Sean’s jaw are related.”

Sean remembered the events of the morning as
if they’d taken place last month and placed a hand on his sore jaw.
“My jaw didn’t do that to your hand, it was the wall.”

Sara let out a groan of motherhood. “And just
when I thought I’d raised my sons to adulthood.” Sara looked down
at her own hand and the bruises on her knuckles from landing a
couple of solid punches on Victor’s jaw. She realized they all had
the fighting spirit.

Ryan started in on his story. “Well, I think
my story is the dullest compared to yours.” He still had his hand
on Jacquline’s. Sean thought those hands fit nicely together.

“They’d lit the house on fire, taken you two,
and pounded on me a bit, but before they left, Riley gave me a cell
phone with instructions to call him once I found Eliwese. I knew
where Sean took her, but I was in no hurry to get there. I stalled
on my way to the cabin, you know, to see if I had a tail. Once I
made it, I found that Eliwese was in real bad shape. Sean
definitely had his hands full.”

Sean looked over to Ryan at the last comment.
The corners of Ryan’s mouth curved up.

Ryan continued. “Eliwese came up with the
blackmail plan and she sent me on the errand to arrange the plan
with Rawlings; only, I screwed it up. I thought I could second
guess her plan and in the end, I messed it up. She railed on me and
that’s why she sent Sean to complete the errands, to get Dr.
Randall’s white SUV. He brought back Dr. Randall with him to
evaluate Eliwese.

“We took her to Dr. Randall’s underground
clinic and he patched her up. Sean and I along with the help of
many other people pulled together the plan for the mall meeting.
Once the four of us were reunited in the courtyard of the mall, I
knew everything would be OK. Dad was alive, both of you were alive
and the whole family would survive.”

“Eliwese sacrificed herself to make it all
happen, Ryan,” Sean pointed out in a quiet voice. It all made sense
now. She’d told him it wouldn’t work without her and she was right.
She had also said they needed to wait for her father to mess up and
then act upon it. Well, he had certainly screwed up and Sean was
absolutely going to take advantage.

“So did Dr. Randall and Suzzette,” Sara
added. “At least neither one of them left spouses or children
behind.”

Jacquline questioned further. “Why would
Riley kill his own mother?”

Sean said, “That is the million-dollar
question, Jacquline. What we do know is Riley secretly operates the
underground network, shipping defectors across the border,
defectors with death warrants on their heads. Dad didn’t know he
was dealing with Victor’s head of security; Eliwese was unaware of
Riley’s duality until she entered the underground and Riley placed
his own mother in our home. So far, the only people who have known
he was a traitor have been crossers. For a price, he offers them
life and freedom. In exchange, they keep their mouths shut about
him. Eliwese was threatened with the lives of her mother and sister
if she exposed him.”

“Well, that would be easily remedied,
wouldn’t it?” Jacquline suggested. “Ok, this explains why Victor
Rawlings would be unaware, but it just seems there is more to it.
Why would he help his own mother cross and then kill her?”

Sara sat forward on the couch. “Jacquline,
you’re right, there is more to this story. I raised my children
with the knowledge that I, their mother, was once a crosser. It’s
true. However, I never revealed the real reason I defected.”

“What are you talking about?” Lyndee asked
her mother.

Ryan scooted to the edge of his seat,
although Sean knew Ryan had heard many things already from the
conversation with Eliwese the night before.

“Honey, I have kept this a secret from my
children because it wasn’t necessary for any of you to know the
whole story, but now it is. I crossed the border running from
Reginald Rawlings’ son, Victor. I was being forced to marry
him.”

“What?” Lyndee half laughed.

“That’s right. I went to school with Victor
and Riley and we’re all close to the same age. I had no interest in
either one of them. They were cocky and arrogant, the same as they
are now; I kept to myself as much as I could. However, Riley took
an interest in me; the more I ignored him, the harder he pursued.
When I was eighteen my father approached me informing me Reginald’s
son had chosen me to be his bride and I refused wholeheartedly. My
father respected me and took my answer back to Reginald and died
almost immediately. I was told his heart failed, but I knew better,
I knew the moment Reginald seized me and forced me to take up
residence at the palace, he’d been murdered.

“I could have been forced to marry Victor
right away, but Victor didn’t want me that way. He wanted me
willing. So he decided to court me and try to win my affection. It
was in that time period I learned the real reason Victor had
selected me to be his bride; Riley wanted me. Victor had always
been jealous of Riley, yet he had no reason to be. Riley had grown
up in a simple home with only modest things. Victor had everything
and anything he wished for, but he was not content. The only thing
that made Victor content was being one step ahead of Riley.

“Riley was Victor’s best and only friend and
Riley felt honored to be the future dictator’s only friend. That’s
what he told me when I questioned his friendship to Victor. Once
Victor moved into authority, Riley would rise to the top with him
and have power too. But, Riley loved me, and his best friend, his
only friend, was stealing me away from him.

“Now, before any of you develop a soft spot
for Riley, consider this: Riley cornered me on several occasions
with an offer to help me escape, but the catch was I had to marry
him. We were caught talking together by Reginald and when
questioned as to our situation, Riley told him I had come to him
for help with escaping.